AN: This is literally like a year and a half in the making, what the fuck ever, I finished. This is hugely inspired by "Maybe in Another Universe, I Deserve You" on thought catalog, so if you haven't read that you should totally go do that. Anyway, uh, please enjoy. Sorry my contribution to Femslash February literally happened at the last second, but hey, at least it happened.

All the Places We've Met (For the First Time)

Whitmore College, Virginia, 2011

"Maybe there's a universe where I'm the right person for you. Where I adore every nice thing you did for me without starting to resent you."

Elena's three and a half minutes late and her stomach is already in knots. She hurries across campus as quickly as she can, cursing her perky advisor who had rambled for five minutes about the college's dedication to a healthy community environment, whatever. She was supposed to meet Bonnie at this coffee shop on the edge of campus four minutes ago, and her lateness is making it hard to breathe. To distract herself she begins to hum a bit of the song she heard on the radio that morning.

"Talk about your famous love affairs…I just found someone…" she trailed off tunelessly, unable to be distracted from the tightening knots in her stomach.

Her therapist says her anxiety about being late stems from the last accident, the one where her aunt Jenna and uncle John died in a house fire, a fire that would've killed Elena too if she hadn't been running late from dropping her brother Jeremy off at his friend's house for the weekend. If she hadn't been stuck in traffic, she would've died with them, Elena thinks about that a lot.

Her therapist says she has enough survivors' guilt to build a bomb shelter with enough left over to power a small country. Only a year and a half before the house fire, her parents died in a car accident of which Elena was the only survivor. Elena should've died in the car with her parents, Elena should've died in the fire with her aunt and uncle, but Elena lived. Jeremy thanks God for that fact every day; Elena curses God for that fact every night.

It's not that she wants to die, but she's just so tired of living while everyone she loves seems to die around her. Her therapist says that that's just life; Elena says that that's just a fucking tragedy.

After their guardians died, Jeremy and Elena were sent off to live with old family friends' in Denver, and now Elena was finally returning to Virginia to attend her father's alma mater, Whitmore College, intent on following in his footsteps to become a doctor.

It helps that her best friend, Bonnie, is also attending Whitmore, so Elena doesn't feel alone, but now Elena is nearly five minutes late, and her fingers are slick with sweat, her stomach bubbling sickeningly.

Dodging mingling students on the quad, Elena reaches nerveless fingers into her bag, intent on texting Bonnie to make sure she's okay, irrationally afraid despite herself, when she slams into something, or rather, somebody. Elena lands on her ass, her hands thrown out behind her to catch herself.

"Fuck," she hisses, her palms stinging from the impact.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry," a bubbly voice shrieks, warm hands reaching out to haul Elena off of the ground. Disoriented, Elena's gaze trails up from their clasped hands to delicately muscled arms, then elegant shoulders encased in a yellow gauzy sundress, a swirling mass of golden hair, perfect pink lips, and then her eyes meet the most brilliantly blue eyes she's ever seen.

Blushing, the blonde lets go of her hands and looks down at her white wedges, biting her lip sheepishly. Elena tears her gaze away from the adorable freckles dusted across the blonde's nose and looks down at her hands, there's a gash from a stray rock slashed across her pinky and she grimaces, thoughtlessly sticking it her mouth, sucking the blood from her finger.

"Oh no, you're bleeding!" the blonde exclaims, "I am such a klutz," she rants, fishing through her purse, searching for something. Elena keeps her bleeding pinky in her mouth, trying not to gag at the metallic taste. Finally the blonde pulls a tissue from her purse and hands it over to Elena.

Elena takes the tissue, pulls her fingers from her mouth, and wraps the bleeding appendage with it tightly. She swallows the blood and saliva in her mouth and smiles embarrassedly at the radiant blonde in front of her.

"Thanks," she mumbles weakly. The blonde winces in sympathy.

"I am so sorry," she gushes but Elena waves her off.

"It's not your fault, I was in a rush, I wasn't even paying attention to my surrounding." Elena smiles apologetically. Caroline smiles back at her helplessly.

"I'm Caroline," she says, holding out her hand. Elena reaches for her hand with her uninjured hand, and when their fingers touch Elena feels delicious tingles from her head to her toes.

"I'm Elena," she replies. When she releases Caroline's hand, the tingles recede until it's nothing but a pleasant buzz in her fingertips.

Her anxiety over being late is forgotten.

Forbes Country Estate, England, 1871

"Maybe there's a universe where that's the life I want. Where I don't second-guess everything and I'm not afraid of commitment and of the future and of love."

Caroline Forbes leans out the window of the family carriage in a most unladylike fashion. Only sixteen years old, she is as beautiful as the sun, her father's pride and her mother's torment. The wind tosses her golden curls and tears at the crimson ribbon that her maid had attempted to tame them with.

Turning her nose upwards towards the sun, she closes her eyes and basks in its warmth. She knows that she runs the risk of unsightly freckles, a faint strip of them already mar her pretty features, dusted across her nose and the apples of her cheeks, but Caroline can't resist the siren lure of the crisp air and bright sunshine. She opens her eyes and stares up at the clouds.

A flicker of movement catches her eyes, and she twists until she's right side up, turning towards the movement, and her breath catches in her ribcage. At the edge of the forest there is a girl, no older than her, with wild dark curls and half a dozen dark skinned children crowded around her simple skirts, clutching at the sash that dangles from her waist. A tall boy stands beside her, and together they stare at the carriage as they pass. The girl catches Caroline's gaze, and Caroline cannot look away.

"Caroline Forbes," her mother snaps just as the wind snatches the ribbon from her hair. Reluctantly, she breaks eye contact with the dark-haired girl and ducks her head back into the carriage, turning to face her disapproving mother.

"It is not proper for young ladies to be hanging out the window like laundry," Elizabeth Forbes hisses sharply at her and Caroline winces.

"Yes Mama," she mumbles, adjusting her posture and folding her trembling hands in her lap. She hopes that her mother doesn't notice the missing ribbon.

"I hope you brought another ribbon with you, it is most inappropriate for a lady of your breeding and age to have her hair in such a state."

"Yes Mama," she repeats, her mother didn't miss much, but thankfully Emily had thought to tuck a ribbon into her sleeve when they'd left that morning. Pulling it free, she winds the blue silk around her curls, pulling them back tightly and tying it into a crisp bow.

She thinks of the mysterious girl at the edge of the forest, knowing that they are close to their estate, and wonders if she is one of the gypsies who have made camp in their woods since Caroline's father was a small child.

"Really, with your unsuitable behavior, I can't imagine how your father expects anyone to want to marry you, impressive dowry be damned," her mother sniffs. Caroline takes it all stoically, her father is her only ally, and he snores from his seat beside her.

Caroline thinks about the wild gypsy girl at the edge of woods, and wishes.

Three nights after their arrival at the country estate Caroline finds a bouquet of wild flowers in her bedroom. Tied in a careful bow around their stems is her crimson ribbon. Caroline buries her nose in them; they smell earthy and fresh, like sunshine and the outdoors, like freedom. She thinks of the silent gypsy girl at the edge of the woods, and smiles.

The next day she is distracted, she twirls the sapphire star ring her father gave her for her sixteenth birthday 'round and 'round her finger until her mother snaps at her for her fidgeting and dismisses her from the sitting room for the rest of the day.

Restlessly Caroline wanders the estate, trailing fingers along cold wood her mind returning to the gypsy girl again and again. When she finds herself in the empty kitchen, she holds her breath and crosses to the door that will lead her outside. Silently, she slips out the door and into the fresh air. She takes a deep breath and bravely heads for the woods.

She can't say if she is hoping to run into the gypsy girl, or if she simply wants to wander through the dark woods, alone. It doesn't matter what she wants, because the girl finds her not long after she bravely surges into the dark, cool woods.

She appears at the edge of the first clearing Caroline comes to and gives her a sweet smile.

"Hello, Lady," she greets in accented English. Up close, she is even more stunning, her eyes dark and fathomless, her mouth the color of ripe berries, her skin unblemished silk.

"Hello," Caroline breathes. The girl steps closer slowly, as if she expects Caroline to run from her. "Thank you," she continues, "for returning my ribbon, and for the flowers," she adds, blushing under the gaze of the beautiful stranger.

"You are welcome." The girl smiles at her.

"What is your name?" Caroline asks desperately. The girl has stopped only a few paces in front of her, and Caroline is drowning in her simple beauty. Her curls are just as wild today, spilling down to her narrow waist.

"Elena, I am Elena," the girl tells her. "And who are you, Lady?" she enquires and Caroline blushes under the scrutiny of her dark-eyed gaze.

"My name is Caroline," she says. Elena smiles.

"Beautiful," the dark-haired girl pronounces her, and Caroline blushes harder, which only made Elena's smile grow.

"Thank you," Caroline responds, remembering her courtesies, despite the distractingly pretty girl in front of her. "Will you show me the woods?" Caroline begs. "I have never seen them, my mother won't let me."

Elena smiles again and nods, taking Caroline's hand in hers. "I will show you."

They wander through the woods for hours, Elena telling Caroline about her life amongst the gypsies, explaining that she had been abandoned as a child and that a gypsy woman, Dorenia, had taken her in and raised her as her own. Elena tells her about her friend, Bonnie, and her brother.

Elena shows her all her favorite parts of the woods, including a hidden lake with a surface so smooth it resembles a looking glass, and then Elena leads her back to that first clearing that she found her in, bestowing a kiss to the corner of Caroline's mouth that leaves her aching with want. Reluctantly, Caroline returns to the manor, ready for her punishment.

She is kept under close watch afterwards, and just when she feels that she will go mad; her father announces life changing news at supper. There is a duke who wishes to marry her, a duke who is on age with her father, a duke who is stuffy and dull and will only look at her as a pretty treasure to be shown off to all his fashionable friends.

"He will give you so many pretty things, my dear, you do so love pretty things," her father tells her. Her mother beams at her with something akin to pride in her eyes. The news is not completely unfounded, the duke had courted her quite seriously in the winter and spring, but she had hoped his affections would wane.

"You will be a duchess," her mother says, her voice full of awe, her father glowing with pride. Caroline thinks of the life they wish for her, a tidy life with lots of pretty things and a man who will parade her about and fill her stomach with babies.

She will die in her gilded cage; she can feel it in her heart of hearts. She smiles without feeling.

"How perfectly thrilling," she whispers numbly, and her parents toast to her success.

That night, she crawls from her window on the second floor, her dressing gown tearing as she crawls down the tree beside it, and runs for the woods. She runs blindly for what feels like hours, distantly glad that she had thought to put on her sturdy riding boots.

Eventually she comes to the hidden lake and she collapses beside it, sobbing. She is not surprised when Elena comes for her. Elena sits beside her and pulls her head into her lap and Caroline burrows into her skirts.

"Emilian was coming to water the horses, he recognized you from that first day we saw you in your carriage, he thought you might want me," Elena explains as she soothingly brushes Caroline's hair from her face.

"Emilian is a very smart man," Caroline sniffs. Elena caresses her cheek with gentle fingers.

"Are you all right, dearest?" Elena asks, her dark eyes worried. Caroline shakes her head.

"I am to be married," she whispers, her heart aching.

"I suppose I should congratulate you?" Elena enquires lightly, her tone forced. Caroline makes a horrible keening sound that frightens even her.

"I do not wish to die in a cage," she pleads, and then she stops, trembling. "I am already in a cage, but if they put me in that one, I will never escape."

Elena's hands continue to stroke and sooth. "What will you do?" she asks calmly. Caroline sits up, pulling herself from Elena's embrace and meets her gaze fiercely, her mouth quivering still.

"Steal me, please. Take me away," she begs senselessly. Elena stares back at her, unmoving.

"I am a gypsy, not a thief," she tells her. Caroline swipes tears from her face and meets her challenge head on.

"Then I will steal myself," she declares fiercely. Elena's answer is a slow, approving smile. When Caroline leans forward to press her mouth to hers, Elena does not stop her. She tastes like freedom.

Boston, Massachusetts, 1931

"A universe where we're happy — without wondering if that happiness is some messed-up Jenga game ready to topple at the slightest quiver."

The circus comes to town and it only takes a little begging to convince Elena's aunt and uncle to let her go with some of her friends. Their only condition is that she has to take Jeremy with her and she agrees easily, spending time with her brother is never a burden, and she's happy to have him along.

April's father is the hardest to convince, but after much sweet-talking and promises to stick together, he relents and allows her to attend with her friends. Hayley has no one to answer to so she does as she pleases, and Bonnie's grams pats her on the cheek and tells her to be careful. Rebekah's brothers are always tricky to convince, but eventually she gets her way, as she always does, they don't call her the Princess for nothing.

They wander the fairgrounds together, playing the silly games and watching the performers with awe. They shuffle into the huge performance tent and watch a lion tamer dispute tempestuously with the great golden beast, a ballerina dance atop an elephant, all the while the friends shout with joy and amazement, and once or twice, fear. The last performers of the night are the trapeze artists, three men and one girl who leap and fly through the air amongst swinging ropes with nothing but a thin net beneath them and certain death.

The girl is as golden-haired as the lion and twice as bold, tossing and contorting her body through the air with fearless ease, laughing all the while. Elena cannot take her eyes off of her.

Jeremy shouts in delight when the lion girl flips twice through the air before one of the men grabs her by the ankles with startling gentleness.

"She is so brave," Rebekah shouts, laughing.

"She is so beautiful," Elena murmurs, her voice too low to hear over the roar of the crowd, as she intended. Bonnie hears her anyway, and reaches out to hold her hand, squeezing it affectionately.

Elena returns the gesture and grips her friend's hand like it is a lifeline. April sees their linked hands and grabs Elena's free hand and Hayley's beside her until they are all linked together. Jeremy, from his seat behind Elena, laughs at them affectionately, squeezing his sister's shoulders. Elena smiles at him from over her shoulder and then turns her eyes back to the laughing lion girl.

For a moment it seems like the lion girl has noticed her, but then she is throwing herself from the swing into midair and the moment is gone.

"Are you sure you left it here, April?" Elena calls, searching the empty stands for April's sweater.

"Yes! I didn't take it off anywhere else," April calls from the other side of the stands. The show is long over and the girls and Jeremy had been on their way home when April realized she'd left her sweater. As the baby of the group, none of them felt right letting her look for it alone, but everyone had been so tired from their long day of excitement, so Elena had volunteered to go with her to search for it. Despite the popcorn and debris that littered the stands, there was no sign of April's sweater. Elena sighed.

"Is this what you were looking for?" a voice called from the center of the tent. Elena snaps her head toward the voice and straightens. It's the laughing lion girl, still dressed in the swirling dress she'd worn as she was thrown through the air. In her hands is April's sweater.

Elena nods, and makes her way down the stands towards her, April coming down from the other side. They meet the girl in the middle and she smiles, holding the sweater out to April. April takes the sweater and stutters out a shy thank-you.

Up close the lion girl is beautiful, with bright blue eyes and a mischievous grin.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," she says, chuckling lightly. Her bright eyes meet Elena's and she smiles infectiously. "Did you enjoy the show?" she asks, cocking her head to the side in genuine curiosity.

"Very much so," Elena breathes, "you were magnificent." The lion girl laughs.

"Thank you." She beams. "I'm Caroline, by the way," she introduces herself, holding out a slim hand to Elena, and she takes it.

"Elena," she says, and then she points to April, "and this is April."

"Nice to meet you both," she says politely. Then her whole face breaks into a mischievous grin. "Now what will you give me for finding your missing treasure?" she teases, and Elena wants to shock her, so she dips her head to the side, pretending to contemplate.

"A kiss," Elena says at last, and for a second Caroline looks surprised, but then she smiles again.

"My favorite kind of reward." She giggles. Elena isn't sure if the blonde expects her to actually kiss her, but she certainly wants to, so she gathers her courage and stands on her tiptoes, bestowing a kiss onto the blonde's pink mouth.

Caroline tastes like cotton candy and something bitter and spicy, rum, Elena thinks distantly. Caroline tastes like cotton candy and spiced rum.

When Elena pulls out of the kiss she steals a glance at April, she is blushing and stunned, but she doesn't look scandalized or disgusted. Relieved, Elena looks back at Caroline who smiles at her softly.

"What a lovely reward," she says softly. Elena blushes and links her arms with April, leading her towards the tent opening. "You know," Caroline calls from behind her and Elena stops to look back, the blonde gives her an impish grin, "we're here for another three weekends, you should come again."

"I will," Elena promises.

Manhattan, New York, 1926

"A universe where you actually end up with someone who appreciates you. Where no one becomes a doormat. Where both of us can shed our baggage and curiosity and issues."

Caroline pins her hair up in imitation of a bob, her mother won't let her cut her hair off because she's horribly old-fashioned and says no sensible man will marry a girl with hair almost as short as his. So Caroline pins her hair up and under and hopes it looks enough like the fashionable bobs that all her friend's are sporting.

Tonight's the night, her mother's sleeping and her father's working late, again, so Caroline is going to sneak out with her friends and go to Rebekah's brother's speakeasy. It's utterly thrilling and terrifying, her heart is in her throat.

Caroline's daddy is a cop, some say he's the only clean cop left, and he never lets her do anything fun, so tonight she's taking matters into her own hands. Holding her shiny new black and white t-strap heels in her hands, she tiptoes through the dark living room, easing open the door and flying out into the night to meet Rebekah and Hayley at the front stoop.

Perching on the front stoop, she puts on her heels and smiles at her friends.

"Told you I could do it," she croons proudly.

"Attagirl," Rebekah responds dryly, decidedly unimpressed with her friend's daring, but then again Rebekah isn't impressed by much, her parents are dead and her brothers are criminals who treat her like a queen, they give her everything she wants and she's as spoiled as milk left out of the icebox for a week, but she's fiercely loyal to Caroline and Hayley and they love her for it.

"Be nice, Bex," Hayley scolds, "not all of us have the Big Cheese for a brother."

"Pity," Rebekah says archly. Caroline rolls her eyes and stands, giving a twirl.

"How do I look, dolls?" she asks and they both smile at her, Rebekah softening.

"Like the prettiest Jane in town, with gams to die for," Hayley declares. Rebekah nods in agreement.

"The Queen of Sheba, really," Rebekah says grudgingly and Caroline beams. Rebekah ushers them into her brother's car, and they take off towards the joint.

Rebekah leads them through a dark alley and gives the password at the door, leading them through the dark and into the club. Caroline loses her breath at the first sight of the club.

Girls with short hair and beautiful dresses talk with handsome men in sharp suits, everyone is drinking, dancing, laughing, and talking. Rebekah smiles in satisfaction at the awed look on Caroline and Hayley's faces.

"You dolls all right?" she enquires smugly.

Hayley nods.

"Copacetic," Caroline adds.

"Good, let's get a drink," Rebekah preens, sashaying over to the bar. Caroline and Hayley follow, slightly dazed.

Caroline's eyes find the stage, a full band is playing, a little black girl pounding away on the piano with ease, and a breathtakingly beautiful brunette crooning away at center stage.

"I love my baby, my baby loves me, don't know nobody as happy as we," she chirps, swaying her hips beneath creamy silk. She turns to smile at the piano player, and Caroline can see the thick swirl of her dark curls tucked up to the nape of her neck, her hair is uncut, and Caroline feels kinship to the beautiful girl onstage.

"Who is that?" Caroline asks, awe in her voice and on her face.

"That, is my songbird," a man says from her left and Caroline whips her head around to look at him. He has blonde curls that are slicked back to reveal a devilishly handsome face, his eyes a familiar shade of blue. "Hello, I'm Nik, Rebekah's brother," he introduces himself.

"I'm Caroline," she stutters, embarrassed. He smiles warmly, but his eyes stay cold.

"It's all right, she's quite stunning, really. I like to call her Birdy, but most call her Elena," he tells her, a possessive note in his voice.

"She's swell," Caroline tells him honestly, Elena's voice floating about in the thick air like all the beautiful things her mom keeps locked away in her jewelry box.

"A regular orchid, really," Nik agrees, turning to speak with his sister. Caroline frowns, uncomfortable with the way he compares the singer to some expensive pretty bauble.

"He sure is swell," Hayley whispers in her ear and Caroline frowns again but says nothing. She doesn't like him at all.

Eventually Rebekah's brother leaves them and Rebekah turns her attention back to her friends.

Elena warbles something lovely and slow from the stage and Caroline leans her head against Rebekah's shoulder, watching the swaying girl onstage.

"She's real lovely," she murmurs and Hayley giggles.

"Don't start carrying a torch for Birdy, Caroline, she's Nik's favorite toy, it's not a good idea," Rebekah scolds, a note of real concern in her voice. Caroline picks her head up from her shoulder and turns to look at her, frowning.

"She's a person, not a toy," Caroline says. Rebekah shakes her head.

"Tell that to Nik," she replies. "Listen, he saved her life when she was practically a child, her brother got in deep with the wrong people, it was too late for him, but Nik saved Birdy, and now he owns her, she'd never leave him, she's too grateful," Rebekah explains. Caroline's stomach squirms uncomfortably.

"So she's his girl?" she asks uneasily. Rebekah rolls her eyes but nods grimly.

"When he wants her to be, but really Elena is whatever he wants her to be."

To Caroline, that sounded like the saddest kind of life.

At the end of the night, they're still in the speakeasy, everyone is cleaning up around them and Nik pulls Elena down from the stage and over to the three girls.

"Birdy, these are Bekah's friends Caroline and Hayley," he introduces, his hand pressed possessively to the curve of Elena's spine, "Ladies, this is Elena, my songbird."

Up close, Elena is even more beautiful with soft, sad eyes and a full, lush mouth. She smiles, her eyes sweet and sad.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," she says in a low musical voice. Nik beams, his eyes cold as ever.

"Bekah dear, I was hoping you could take Birdy home, I've got business to attend to, and I'd hate to send her home alone." Rebekah nods in agreement. "Excellent, thank you little sister." He turns to Elena pressing an almost gentle palm to her cheek, looking down at her with possessive affection. Elena looks up at him with tired eyes, her lips quirked in a dutiful smile.

"Good night, Birdy, I won't be home until after you're sleeping." He kisses her soft mouth and she responds submissively.

"Good night, Nik," she replies dutifully. He strokes her cheek possessively, and then leaves them. Elena turns to the girls and gives them a helpless smile before directing her words at Rebekah. "Thank you for agreeing to bringing me home, Rebekah," she murmurs. Rebekah smiles, for once lacking her usual poison as she steps forward and links her arms with the brunette, patting her hand and leading her towards the door.

"Nonsense Birdy, it's no trouble at all."

Caroline and Hayley trail behind them. In the car, Caroline ends up seated besides Elena, pressed up against her soft warmth, smelling overwhelmingly of lemons and gardenias.

Elena turns to her in the dark, her eyelashes brushing against her chin, making Caroline shiver.

"I thought I was the only girl with long hair left in New York," she murmurs teasingly, and Caroline laughs.

"So did I," Caroline says. "My mother won't let me cut it," she explains, rolling her eyes. "She's horribly old-fashioned."

"Nik likes mine long," Elena says softly. Caroline bites her tongue. Elena's eyelashes brush Caroline's chin again, she looks out the window.

"To the docks," Rebekah tells the driver suddenly. The man glances back, but complies.

"Where are we going?" Hayley asks. Rebekah sniffs.

"It seems I've grown a conscience, how perfectly horrid," she declares. "We're going to the docks, and I am going to book passage for Birdy and Caroline out on the first boat," she explains.

"Why?" Elena breathes, something like hope shining in her eyes.

"Well I suppose I can't keep watching you bend to my brother's every whim, and I'm certainly not going to send you off on the world alone, so I might as well send you with someone who wants out of her life just as badly," she snaps, pretending that she's not being unusually kind.

Elena surges forward and grasps her fingers with hers, tears shining on her cheeks.

"Thank you, Rebekah, I can never repay you," she says sincerely and Rebekah scoffs and tosses her head, a pleased smile threatening to spill across her face.

In the seat beside her, Caroline sits in stunned silence. Her whole life, she's dreamed of escaping from the confines of her stuffy, lonely home. Here is her chance. Caroline reaches for Elena's hand.

"Let's go," she says, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. Rebekah cam be a brat, but she's fiercely loyal to the girls she calls her friends.

Addison, Alabama, 1953

"Maybe there's a universe without all the noise in my head and the pride that makes me so fiercely independent and the coldness in my heart that I can turn on and off like a security fence."

The newcomer comes Saturday evening, and she's smart enough to come to church Sunday morning. Elena peeks back at her several times throughout the surface, knowing she isn't the only one looking at the strange new woman. The newcomer has shiny blonde curls and a lovely face, like a movie star. Her mouth is curved in an amused smile, as if she is secretly laughing at every word the pastor utters.

The fifth time Elena glances back at the laughing woman, she looks back at her, her mouth curling into a full-blown smile, but then Carol grips Elena's hand between hers in silent reprimand, and Elena doesn't glance back again. Her late husband's mother doesn't often touch her, and it's as strange as the newcomer in the back row.

When the service is over, everyone files out of the church into the hot Alabama sunshine, a blistering summer day just at its beginning. By the time Elena has rescued Linda from the clutches of the overzealous Sunday school teacher, there is already a small crowd surrounding the blonde newcomer.

Bonnie is waiting to take Linda from Elena's arms, full of gossip. The squirming five year old settles in against her second favorite person's chest, cranky from the hours of confinement, her red bow limp in her dark hair.

"She's from California," Bonnie whispers, her eyes bright with excitement. "One of those models."

"She's certainly beautiful enough to be one," Elena murmurs in agreement. The woman wears a lovely tailored suit and old-fashioned black and white t-strap shoes, the kind Elena's grandma used to wear when she was young.

Amy, queen of the gossips, leads the newcomer out of the crowd and directly towards Elena.

"Elena, this is Caroline Forbes," Amy introduces, turning back to the blonde who towers over her petite frame, "Caroline this Elena Lockwood, the one I was telling you about," she explains, before turning back to Elena. "She just got into to town, and she's staying in that dreadful motel until she can find a place, and I told her that you sometimes rent out your spare room."

Elena smiles at Caroline and holds out her hand.

"It's true, I do rent out a room, it's really quite nice," Elena says, shaking Caroline's hand. "If you don't mind children that is," she adds with a laugh. She started renting out her spare room after Tyler died, a car accident, despite his parents' generosity, Elena did her best to stand on her own two feet, she had a small trust fund left from her long dead parents, but renting out the spare room to the occasional single woman gave them a little cushion.

"I happen to be quite fond of children," Caroline says with a laugh, turning to the squirming child in Bonnie's arms. "Is this the one you speak of?" Elena nods.

"This is Linda. Linda, say hi to Caroline," Elena instructs. Linda nibbles on her lower lip but then smiles gap-toothed at the pretty blonde woman.

"Hi," she chirps. Caroline laughs and returns the little girl's exuberant greeting. Turning back to Elena she smiles earnestly.

"I'd like to talk more about that spare room of yours." All Elena can do is smile and nod, she really is beautiful.

Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy, 1675

"Maybe there's a universe where we fall asleep next to each other every night like spoons, like two innocent bunnies — my face buried in your neck, hugging your warmth — and we both don't want anything or anybody else."

When Caroline's ship is accosted by pirates she turns her face to the heavens and thanks God. The ship had been on its way to a brothel, ready to sell Caroline and many other girls as unwilling prostitutes.

She does not fool herself into thinking that the pirates will be any kinder, but at least they will kill her quickly, pirates do not often take women aboard their ship. When the first pirate breaches the deck, Caroline's heart catches in her throat, she is a small woman with dark brown skin and willful curls, she laughs at the fear in Caroline's eyes, and cuts the ropes from her wrists before handing Caroline the knife she used to liberate her.

"Under the rule of my lovely Cap'n, a woman is free to do as she pleases," the small, dark woman tells Caroline with a crooked grin, "we can take you back to the land if you like, but sometimes the sea is kinder, and no one is gentler than Captain Elena, she's a pirate queen worth following." Caroline rubs her aching wrists, but before she can respond the small, dark woman is gone, off to engage a crewmember in a fierce battle.

More and more pirates board the ship, but they pass Caroline and all the girls by without a thought. Some are men and others are women, Caroline doesn't know which one is the Captain—Elena, and she couldn't begin to guess. Instead she uses the knife to free the other girls, as she suspects the little, dark woman intended her to.

When the fighting is over and the riches have been liberated from the ship, Caroline sets out to find the woman who freed her. She finds her directing goods over to her ship and the woman grins at her and sketches a mocking bow.

"Would you take me to your captain?" Caroline asks, her voice hoarse, the woman smiles and nods.

"I'm Bonnie, the first mate, I'll take you to the captain," she agrees, holding out a slim, calloused hand. Without hesitation, Caroline takes it.

Bonnie leads her to the captain's cabin on her ship, and knocks thrice, waiting only a moment before a sweet voice calls for her to enter. Bonnie opens the door and strides through, Caroline following hesitantly behind her. Sitting behind a desk is an extravagantly beautiful woman with rich dark curls and an aristocratic mouth. She is elegantly dressed in simple breeches and a beautiful blue waistcoat, her only jewelry a beautiful sapphire star ring.

"Did you find another crew member, Bonnie?" she asks her first mate, inquisitively. Bonnie laughs, but nods.

"Aye, I think so, Captain," she says, and the captain smiles at Caroline, then gestures for her to come closer, so Caroline does.

"What's your name, dear one?" the Captain asks gently.

"Caroline," she answers rather timidly.

"And what is it you want from us, Caroline?" Elena prods gently. Caroline takes a fortifying breath.

"The ship was taking me to a brothel, I was to be sold into prostitution, if you hadn't attacked us, I would still be sailing off to my doom," Caroline explains, and Elena's eyes are cold and angry at the mention of the brothel, it gives Caroline the strength to surge forward. "Perhaps this is my chance to sail off into a destiny of my choosing," she says bravely. Elena quirks an eyebrow at her.

"As a pirate?" she asks bluntly. Caroline finds her courage and meets her gaze with unwavering strength.

"At least it will be my choice," she says firmly. Elena smiles at her approvingly.

"Well then, welcome to the crew, Caroline."

Mystic Falls, Virginia, 1997-2010

"You just found me in the wrong universe. That's all. This is, as they say, the darkest timeline."

When Elena is five she wants to be a doctor, just like her daddy. Bonnie wants to be a teacher and Caroline; Caroline wants to be a trapeze artist. Caroline wants to fly through the air and do death-defying stunts. Caroline wants to be noticed. Elena notices her.

"One day, I'm going to fly, 'Lena," Caroline promises solemnly and Elena believes her. They're on the swings, pumping their little legs to fly higher and higher and Elena glances over at Caroline and the breath catches in her chest because Caroline is a mess of blonde curls and her bright eyes are half closed, her lips stretched into a blinding gap toothed grin. Elena thinks Caroline looks like an angel.

Caroline turns to look at Elena and holds out a little hand, "let's jump!" she yells and so Elena grasps her hand and they jump together, landing in a graceless heap of squirming limbs and laughter, their fingers locked together tight.

When Elena is twelve Caroline tells her that she has a crush on Tyler's uncle Mason and Elena feels like she's swallowed hot coals. Caroline babbles and blushes about the handsome Lockwood and Elena tries to listen, but the coals have made their way to her stomach and somehow they seem to burn hotter and hotter, until her gut is full of searing heat, and she doesn't know why.

It's the fourth of July picnic and they're perched on a picnic bench far away from everyone else, plates heaped with hot dogs and potato salad, Caroline leaning over her until she's practically sprawled across Elena's lap.

"He's sooo cute, Elena," Caroline giggles, twirling her sunshine curls around her fingers with nimble ease, looking up at Elena expectantly. Elena obediently twines her fingers into Caroline's curls, their pinkies brushing, and nods.

"Yeah, he is" she agrees through numb lips. She uses her free hand to push her plate away; she's not so hungry anymore.

Caroline rests her head against Elena's thigh, smiling up at her best friend.

"He's not as cute as you, though," Caroline says casually, squinting against the sunlight that filters through the trees.

The burning coals in Elena's stomach dissolve into pleasant warmth, as sweet and warm as a bath. Elena smiles helplessly at the girl sprawled across her lap.

When Elena is fifteen she kisses Caroline Forbes behind the school auditorium with her eyes closed and their hands clasped. She sees supernovas and fireworks and constellations behind her closed eyelids, and when Caroline gasps and opens her mouth into hers, she knows the blonde sees them too.

Caroline's fingers trail up Elena's bare arms and come to rest on her shoulders, as they tentatively explore each others mouths and Elena can barely breathe through the feeling, her fingers hovering hesitantly at the taller girl's waist. Caroline grips her shoulders tight and pushes her back against the wall, pressing their bodies together until there is no space between them. Elena's hands drift up from her waist, following the curve of her spine, sliding up into Caroline's perfect curls, gripping her hair tightly at the nape of her neck.

Caroline's mouth is deliciously warm and wet and tastes like bubblegum and lemons and Elena never wants to stop kissing her. They part slowly, lungs burning for air, lips swollen, and eyes glazed. Elena stares at Caroline and Caroline stares at Elena.

"Hi," Elena whispers, and Caroline laughs.

"Hi," the blonde whispers back. They're still pressed together, and Elena can feel the pounding of Caroline's heart in her chest, pressed against her own. It only takes the slightest movement to close the gap between their mouths.

This time, Elena keeps her eyes open, and so does Caroline. There is no frenzy; only slow, sweet touches that burn painlessly like sparklers.

When Elena is sixteen Caroline breaks her heart. It's been four months of stolen kisses and tentative touches but Elena knows she loves Caroline, that she will always love Caroline.

It's only been a month since Caroline laid her down on her bed, stripped her bare, and kissed every inch of her, making her see stars on the empty expanse of her ceiling.

Now, Caroline stands before her in an empty classroom, more space between them than there has ever been before, her face pleading.

"I can't love a girl, Elena," she says, her words final.

Elena's mouth trembles, her vision blurry with tears. She thinks of Caroline's father, Caroline's father who left her mother for a man, her father who broke Caroline's heart. Elena wants to tell her that she's not breaking anybody's heart by loving her. Instead, she nods.

"Okay," she rasps. Caroline smiles and touches her hand.

"We'll still be friends, best friends," Caroline promises, and then she leaves her.

"Friends," Elena whispers to the empty room, the word tasting bitterer than it ever had before. She sits for what feels like hours before Bonnie finds her. Bonnie the only one who knew, Bonnie who cradles her best friend against her as she sobs until she is sick to her stomach, all the while silent tears stream down her face, heartbroken for the girl who is her sister in all but blood.

Next week, Elena will say yes when Matt asks her to homecoming. He will kiss her and she will smile but she will never see supernovas or fireworks or constellations ever again.

Eventually she'll date Stefan Salvatore and he will love her but he will never make her see stars on the empty expanse of any ceiling.

Someday, she will tell Damon that she loves him, and he will touch her, but his hands will not burn painlessly like sparklers.

Matt, Stefan, Damon, it doesn't matter which boy murmurs adorations against her mouth, she's just settling. None of them are Caroline, and she will never love them like she loves her.

AN: AUs are as follows; College AU with no supernatural beings, Caroline's parents moved away to Georgia when they got married and she decided to go to school near their hometown, Victorian era Gypsy AU, Elena is not of Romani blood, merely raised by a Romani woman and Caroline runs away to live amongst them, Circus AU where Caroline is a trapeze artist and Elena is the awed audience member, 1920s AU where Nik is the big bad gangster, Elena is a singer in one of his clubs, and Caroline is the cop's daughter who falls head over heels at first song, 1950s Housewife AU where Caroline is the strange newcomer and Elena is the widowed housewife, Pirates AU with Elena as a Pirate Queen and Caroline's unintentional savior, and finally the "Canon" Mystic Falls storyline with the added back story between Elena and Caroline.

xoxo

-Pixie